The Awakening
by Ghost113
Summary: my first real story, trying to fit a bunch of genres into it. In the zombie outbreak, civilization will fall, but people will come together as one to survive
1. Chapter 1: Promises Made

Chapter 1: Promises Made

Kyle Hendricks put down his mug of coffee and was reading the newspaper. He was sitting alone in the fire hall waiting for a job. Oh god how boring life can be sometimes. He decided that watching is always better then reading, so he put down his newspaper and turned on the TV. He started flipping through the channels when the news caught his eye. Buildings were burning and the news reporter was saying something about riots and violence. The scene was completely taking over his mind. He didn't even notice his buddy Eric coming up behind him.

"So what the fucks on the news that makes it so special today?" Eric said. Kyle nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Hey, don't fuckin do that man, I will kill you!" Kyle responded. All of a sudden his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of its pouch on his belt and flipped it open. It was Sarah, his girlfriend.

"Kyle, where are you? You said you would be home by now." She stated.

"I'm still at the fire hall, I promise I'll be home in a half hour and we can do something together." Kyle said to Sarah.

"Ok, just be sure it is a half hour." Then Sarah hung up. Kyle went to his locker to get his shit so he could go home. But first, he had to drop by a few places and buy some shit. He was going to make sure Sarah had to wait for a good reason.

* * *

Kyle just walked into his home when his girlfriend suddenly bursted out at him, making jump.

"Kyle, you have too see this." Sarah said. Kyle noticed she was watching the news, as the regular anchorman's voice was pounding through the house. What he was saying made no sense to Kyle though.

"-and that concludes the list of the rescues stations." The anchorman said. "Violence continues to spread throughout the city and neighboring states." Sarah was staring open mouthed at the T.V. screen.

"Oh my god! What the hell are we going to do Kyle?" Sarah asked impatiently. She also sounded scared. And then, Kyle's pager went off. He was called in to work.

"I'm sorry, babe, but what was that list thing he was saying that I missed? Rescue stations. Go to one of those, I will be there as soon as possible. I promise" Kyle said sympathetically. In this troubled time, he wanted to be with Sarah, but the fire department was calling him away too work. Probably too put out the fires spreading rampant throughout the city. So, Kyle had to get his boots back on, get back in his truck and drive too the fire station. As he drove, he saw the carnage that his city was really in. He hoped Sarah would be Ok until he met up with her again.

When Kyle finally arrived at the station. He was given brief instruction on where he was going to fight his first fire of the day. He suited up and joined his buddy Eric in the cab of the first fire engine.

"So man, isn't this when you usually get home?" Eric asked as he revved up the engine.

"Yep." Was all Kyle could muster up at the time.

"Shitty man, Well they woke me up from my good sleep, and I was having a good dream too." Eric responded.

"What, you were finally getting a piece?" Kyle asked with the humour dripping from his words.

"Shut the fuck up man. That isn't even funny. And anyways, I did that hot Asian chick the other night." Eric responded, satisfaction clearly shining in his words.

"Did you really? Holy shit man, keep it in your pants for at least a month." Kyle responded.

"Yeah, but I promise you this, I will keep one chick for a girlfriend this month." Eric said.

"Yeah right." Kyle responded.

"What you don't believe me?" Eric asked with a grin on his face.

"No, I don't. And I don't know why we are even talking about this. Lets just get the job done and go home."

* * *

Kyle was staring in awe at what he was seeing, he was in for one long day. Fires were spread around everywhere. Cars were flipped over, bodies lay in the streets mutilated. There were several rioters who stormed a police blockade and were terrorizing them.

"What the fuck is happening to this city?" Eric asked as he pulled the fire engine over. Kyle and Eric simultaneously jumped out of the fire engine and hooked up all of the hoses. Kyle and Eric have been doing this for years, their performance was flawless. In his mind, Kyle was already estimating how long it would take to put out the fire. He looked to his left and saw a humanoid shape moving towards him in the smoke, it was shambling at a slow pace. From the contour shape, he could tell it was a woman.

"What the hell, I'll help her." Eric said. He ran over to her and said something quietly. And then just out of nowhere. She was on him, in a flash, she was tearing his throat out with her teeth. What the fuck was she thinking? Kyle dropped the hose and ran over to help his friend. He grabbed the girl and lifted her away, she refused to let go of a piece of Eric's neck, and it was torn away, leaving an every bloody Eric lying still on the ground.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Kyle yelled at her. The woman looked up at Kyle and tried to grab him with an open, salivating jaw. Kyle threw the woman to the ground, she looked up at him, and recognition suddenly took hold of Kyle. It was his wife. But that couldn't be, she died 6 years ago. But it was definitely her. The same straight brown hair and rosy cheeks and the same perfume lingered over the stench of rotting flesh. But her dazzling green eyes have been turned to white mirrors, showing a pain that can only be cured by one remedy

Too feed.

Kyle's ex got up and started limping her way to him. Kyle noticed why she was limping. A huge chunk had been torn out at the bottom of her right leg, including her Achilles tendon. Kyle ran to the truck and grabbed the fire axe. He would have gone to get Eric, but he was getting up on his own now.

"Come on Eric! The rioters are surrounding us!" Kyle looked at Eric as he slowly turned, but all that greeted him from the face of his long time friend was an emotional pain. Eric's eyes, were just like Kyle's ex, plus now he looked hungry for him too. He started trotting at a much faster pace then Kyle's ex was. The chains of panic released Kyle from his paralysis and he charged to the fire engine. Booting it up, he turned to drive away. He didn't care were he went, he just had to get away.

Away from the horrors that he had just witnessed.

* * *

Kyle was storming down the street with the radio tuned into the news, hoping desperately to hear something about those rescue stations he heard from earlier that day on the TV. He saw the cannibalistic crazies swarming everywhere. He never stopped when one stumbled in the way of the fire engine. He didn't care, not for what he'd seen them do to his friend.

"What the fuck is wrong with these people, some kind of disease or something?" Kyle said to himself. Then he heard the words he was hoping for,

"The rescue stations are at the St. George Library, the local Police station, and White Brick hospital." Kyle was staring at the radio, therefore not paying attention to the road. He looked up and saw a police road block with a hoard of those psychos, what the hell was he talking about. They were most _definitely_ zombies. That was the only explanation for his dead wife _eating _his buddy. As crazy as it sounds, he was dealing with zombies. Pondering these thoughts almost got Kyle killed as he slammed right into the police road block and the building beyond it. He lifted his head from the airbag and noticed something bad. The zombies were coming towards him. He grabbed his axe opened the door and started booking it down the road which had no zombies down it. His equipment was slowing him down so he started taking it off as he ran. He looked back once and noticed how slow the zombies were. So he rounded the bend and slowed down. He kept walking and remembered something that could be important. There was a gun store around the bend just a block away. That would be his best bet.

He started to run but then thought of something. He wasn't going to need his Firefighter heat resistant pants anymore, so he took the time to take them off. Now he felt much more comfortable in his black cargo pants and blue Engine 13 t-shirt. Hefting his fire axe in one hand, he started to jog. He could see a few of those things wandering around, but they were to slow to catch up to him. One hissed and lunged at him. Cursing himself as he knocked the abomination away with his muscular arm, he prepared for a good strike between the shoulder and neck with his axe. The zombie looked up at him, hunger filling its eyes as she stared unblinking at him. Then Kyle noticed who it was. It was his girlfriend. She had been caught by one of those fuckers and turned. Kyle knew though, that she would want him to end her if she knew what she was. He struck, cleaving into the torso area, but she didn't die! Kyle was almost in tears as he withdrew the axe while Sarah was clawing at him. Kicking her away, he aimed for a clean horizontal head slice. He swung with all his might, almost blinded by tears. He spun 180° through the sheer power he put into his swing. The undead form of Sarah, his former girlfriend, slumped to the ground. Her head was cleanly sliced at the mouth. Turning away, Kyle started stumbling towards the gun store, tears almost clouding his vision, only one block away and around the corner. Then he heard gunshots from a distance, from his destination.


	2. Chapter 2: Armageddon

Chapter 2: Armageddon

Kyle stood frozen in place and stared for a few seconds in the direction of the gunfire. Someone had made it to the gun store before him. He regained his senses and started walking towards the gun store, axe ready for any other rotting shamblers. Kyle noticed one turn around and had spotted him. Kyle was waited for the zombie to come and get him, no need wasting energy that could very well be needed later. All of a sudden, it started to sprint at him. He was so shocked that he didn't swing his axe in time. The thing got on top of him and tried to tear into his throat with chipped teeth covered with the blood of previous victims. But because of superior strength, Kyle lifted the creature off of him and brought it down with full force, smacking its head on the concrete of the road. The contact between skull and asphalt made a sickening crunch noise.

"Never again." Was all he could manage to say. He would never be so off guard again, unless they learned how to fly, which is extremely doubtful. He picked up his axe that he dropped and swung it in a wide arc, bringing it down on a zombie looking for a feast. The shear force put into the swing cleaved the head completely in two down the centre and kept going into the upper torso, exposing everything inside. With almost as much force as he swung it, he pulled the axe free and started jogging toward the gun store to meet the other survivor, he hoped.

While Kyle walked, he noticed that there weren't many zombies on this side of town. Well, that made sense, this was the residential side. When this whole shit started, everyone would be at work, the mall, in school, and so on. That was good, he needed some rest. Once he found this person, he would get some guns and find a place to sleep.

Kyle was almost there. He felled two more zombies sense the runner and he was at the corner. He turned and almost got hit by two well aimed, consecutive shots.

"HOLY SHIT! IM ALIVE GOD DAMN IT!" Kyle yelled at the top of his lungs while diving to the ground.

A female voice said "Oh my god! I'm so sorry, I thought you were one of those-"

"-Zombies?" Kyle said looking up. The woman was about 26 with auburn, jaw length hair and around 5'4. But her most striking feature were her Brown eyes which had splashes of violet in them. Those eyes, Kyle could see, were they eyes of a stern, yet frightened person. She held a pistol up, smoke drifting lazily out of the barrel. Kyle also noticed there were quite a few brass casings and empty clips around her, with "dead" zombies around the entrance to the store.

"Zombies? Don't be ridiculous, there has to be some sort of answer to this, a disease or mental disorder or something." The girl said. "Hurry up and get in hear, it's safer." Kyle was reluctant to go in at first, considering this woman just shot at him, but he decided that it was for the best of his interests to go inside.

"My name's Kyle, its good to see a new living face around." Kyle said, usually when he met a new person, he would be offering his hand to them, but he was busy finding a gun to suit him.

"I'm Anna-Parker, sorry again for shooting at you, you are the first living person I've seen since I left my house." Kyle was listening, and remembering Eric, and Sarah, and even his old wife strangely. Then everything went blank in his mind when he spotted it. A Remington 870 shotgun. Kyle picked it up and stared intently at his new found tool. He dropped his axe, slung his new pump action, and went over to where the knives were kept. He still needed a back up weapon that didn't need ammo. Just in case he ran out or was wrestling with one of those ghouls, he needed a smaller weapon, but reliable. He picked the USMC issued K Bar. K Bar was a good knife company, very unswerving weapon which was trusted by armies and counter terror teams all over the world. Plus it had a nice balance between blade and grip. He attached the sheath to his belt. He also picked up a utility belt. Loading it with shells. Picking up and putting on a black baseball cap, he knew he was ready.

"So where are we going to go?" Anna-Parker's words brought him out of his state of oblivion.

"What do you mean?" Kyle responded.

"Well we can't stay here, there isn't enough food to support a mouse, let alone two people." Kyle knew Anna's logic this was true. He never thought about where he would go next.

"I don't know, out of town seems good, But it may take a while." Considering they were in the almost dead centre of the city, this was true. "Let's go to the convenience store a few blocks down and stay there until daylight then we can start moving."

"Ok, sounds like a plan."

"Ok, what do we have to eat?" Anna asked as she browsed through the shelves. Kyle went into the back room first and shut off the lights so they wouldn't attract attention. A.P. and he got to the store with little trouble. About six shamblers. Easily taken out by the pair's firearms. Kyle was surprised by how well she handled her Beretta 92fs pistol.

"Just grab some stuff and take them to the back room, we can stay in here. Looks like the TV still works too." Kyle said, with a little bit of enthusiasm. Television was good, maybe he could find out about what the fuck was going on.

A.P. walked in with a cart full of snacks, some deli meats left over and some drinks including juice, energy drinks and soda. Kyle was flipping through the stations, which were inactive, until he flicked over to a news channel that was still on and was commenting on the outbreak.

"-and the city of Los Angeles was lost to these monsters as well." The anchorman said. "We now bring you live to our reporter at a National Guard blockade."

"Thanks Jim." The live reporter said as the screen witched to him. There was the sounds of blood curdling screeching, moaning and gunfire. "It's a damned war zone out here. The things just keep coming and coming. It was discovered that only headshots can bring these things down. I repeat, only headshots, can kill these things. The National Guard seem to be holding them back, but just barely. I'm thinking I might get out of here, it's just not safe for me here." The sounds of screaming came and Gunfire was getting frantic. The soldiers in the background were swearing and walking backwards while shooting. "Oh god! The things have broken through the defenses. We've gotta go right the fu-" He was cut off when a zombie grabbed him and tore into his neck. Blood sprayed onto the camera and then it fell, with the sounds of feasting, running and screaming. The Camera lay there, broadcasting the reporter's grisly death on national television for 2 whole seconds before being switched to the anchorman again.

"Jesus fuck." Was all Kyle managed to say. He glanced at A.P. for a second to see her expression. It was one of mute horror with wide eyes and a sagging jaw. She noticed him and her eyes went normal and closed her mouth.

"I apologize for what you have just witnessed." A paper was flung onto the desk. "I have just been informed that we are going off the air for emergency reasons. If you need any more information, visit our website at w w w dot channel 9 news dot com." Then the screen just had those colour bars and said 'please stand by'.

"There's a computer over there." Anna said pointing to a desk in the corner of the room. "Maybe it still works and has internet connection." Anna then got up and turned on the computer. It was all ready to go in about 30 seconds. She found out it had high speed internet connection. "Fuck yeah! It has high speed!" Anna clapped her hands lightly with joy. She quickly got to a website showing all the information they needed to know, a map of the world showing areas of infestation. The areas marked were too big for comfort, almost covering the entire Earth.

"Holy shit…" Was all Kyle could spit up at seeing this dreadful sight. "It's fucking Armageddon."

"Look over near the mountains near this city, a safe spot with no infestation. If you ask me, that's our best bet." Anna reported.

"Yeah, easier said then done. But it beats sitting here waiting to die." Kyle responded. "We move in the morning."

The next morning, Anna woke up and looked at an ever awake Ryan swinging back a coffee, and looked at the clock.

"Holy shit, its 5:00 in the morning? How the hell are you so awake?" Anna asked with mild curiosity.

"I was awake sense 4:40 kid." Kyle said with a hint of humor.

"Don't call me 'kid' fuck head. I have a name" Anna shot back.

"Ok, ok. Just don't bite my head off." Kyle replied with a little more then a hint of humor.


	3. Chapter 3: Long Road Ahead

Chapter 3: The Long Road Ahead

Silence.

Something that hasn't happened since the outbreak first occurred the day before. The sun rose showing a city that was now completely dead. Ghouls from beyond the grave stalked the ruined streets in search of living flesh to be eaten to sustain their ever raging hunger. One of them walked around a corner and saw a police car smashed into a lamppost. There was an undesecrated corpse inside, dead from the crash. Opening its slavering jaws, the rotting shambler moved towards the body, unaware of his comrades lying in pools of coagulated blood around the wreckage. Unflinching with holes in their heads, they provided no warning to the soul that was to be redeemed.

* * *

"There's another one."

A shot rang out while the vile creature dropped to the ground with a solid thud, causing contents from his decaying head to spill onto the asphalt of the road. That made 13 around the police cruiser.

"Man, we don't have to be out here anymore, our blockade was overrun and no ones coming to get us. We should move soon."

The marine sniper continued to watch the ground below the 5 story building while his spotter watched the entrance to the roof. They had been up there since the military was deployed to the cities. While they stayed up there and thinned out hordes for the army to make quick work of them. Turns out, the human critters made quick work of the army. As far as they knew, the sniper team were the only people left alive in the city.

"Where are we going to go Mike? We haven't gotten comms or seen anyone since the last blockade went out." Said the sniper as he took his eye out of the scope to look around and rest his eye, lest he get tunnel vision.

Mike turned to look at the sniper for a while. He stared at him with a confused face for about 3 seconds.

"Well Danny, we could start by leaving this fucking city!"

"And where do you suppose we'll go after that?" Danny looked at his spotter with a questioning look on his face. Now both of them were quite interested in what the other was thinking.

"Don't know, don't really care either! We can figure that out later." Mike looked back at the doorway onto the roof while Dan looked back at the road.

"Holy shit. Mike, you gotta see this."

* * *

Kyle was walking down the road, with Anna not far behind, both with their weapons ready to be used if needed. Kyle peeked around a corner and saw around 13 "dead" zombies lying near a wrecked police car. The body inside had not been disturbed since it had first hit the lamppost that the car was now embedded in.

"Looks clear." Kyle whispered back to Anna.

"What do you mean 'looks' clear?" Anna demanded.

"I mean its clear, with a bunch a dead zombies around." Kyle said back. He started walking over to the car when he heard a voice yell out at them.

"HEY! You two! Stay there, were comin down!" Anna and Kyle both looked up simultaneously too see a silhouette of a person waving their hand around above their head while holding a rifle with the other. About a minute later, two soldiers were running out the front door of the building scanning up and down the street with weapons raised looking for zombies. One had an M21 sniper rifle with a good quality scope mounted on top and folded bipods while his partner held an M4 assault rifle with red dot sight, laser sight, flashlight and a forward grip. The sniper was wearing a backwards service cap on his head and had a tattoo that read _servo per veneratio_,while the other was wearing a kevlar helmet. Both had their sleeves rolled up.  
"Wow, you two are the only living people we've seen since last night." Kyle said to the soldiers. "I'm Kyle an-"

"-I'm Anna-Parker" Kyle looked at the girl for a moment that looked like was looking off into space. The one soldier with the M4 looked at Anna with curious eyes, that turned into ones of surprise.

"AP? Is that really you?" He said as he continued to look at her. Anna was knocked out of her trance and looked at the soldier for a full two seconds before the two approached each other and hugged each other.

"Oh my god." was all Anna could really say. It almost seemed as if she were crying. After a while she spoke up again, the other two just looked at the scene they were witnessing with shock and curiosity. "It's been too long Mike"

"Far too long" Mike replied with a smile on his face, and it seemed as if his eyes were getting watery too.

The sniper spoke up after ten seconds of silent bonding between the two.

"Yah, as you heard, my spotters name is Michael and my name is Daniel."

"Aren't we supposed to call you by rank or last name?" Kyle asked.

"Well normally yes. But, well, the situation doesn't really call for it does it?" Kyle just nodded his head in acknowledgement. "So what's your plan?"

"Our plan? Shouldn't you guys have a plan? You are the army after all." Kyle said with the shock of this news evident in his speech.

"Well, actually we're Marines. And our blockade and every other one in the city has fallen. As far as we know, we are the only living military presence in the city. So you got a plan?"

"We recently saw on the internet that there are still some pockets of land where there are no zombies. The mountains near the city are one of them. It's a long shot, but where else are we going to go?" Kyle said to Daniel. Mike and Anna seemed to be talking to each other, maybe catching up on a few things? Kyle was curious to know how she knew the soldier.

"Sounds good, mind if we tag along?" Daniel asked  
"Of course, we need to stay together if we want to survive this thing." Kyle responded. Mike looked over at the other two, whom he was eavesdropping while speaking to Anna.

"We've been here too long, we should get moving, and it's going to be a long road ahead."

* * *

Kyle, Anna and their new found friends, whom he found out were elite scout snipers, were walking through the streets of the city, encountering little resistance as the zombie hordes thinned out due to the ghouls lack of interest in things, they spread around the city. There were at least some on every street though, getting by was easy, they were slow. Well, most of them.

A sprinter ran towards the entourage of survivors, only to be greeted by a 7.62mm round to the forehead, causing gray matter to spray out the back of its skull. The creature landed on his back with enough force to crack his skull even further. The humans stayed on their path towards the exit of the city.

"We should stop for supplies in that store over there. Keep your senses sharp, there is almost guaranteed to be one in there." Mike suggested.

"I'll keep watch out here, I'm not setting foot in that death trap" Whispered Dan to Mike. Mike entered the store first and gave the thumbs up for clear and continued to look around the building for more rots.

Seeing one, he pulled out his knife and snuck up on it. The zombie turned around and gave a gargled throat noise before lunging at Mike. Mike grabbed the ghoul's arm and twisted it, putting himself behind it and its fatal bite. He then plunged the blade through the lower jaw and up into the brain, killing the thing without the loud noises of firearms. He continued to search the building, there were no more zombies left inside.

"So what are we going to put the food in?" Kyle asked. Anna looked at him and pointed to a shelf that had a few backpacks on it. Mike just filled what little room there was left in his military pack. Daniel still waited outside, sitting on a bench just outside the door of the store and watched down the road.

"Mikey, got some jolly ranchers." Anna teased. Mike's eyes shot towards his friend with a hunger that looked much like the living dead's. Anna waved the package of hard candies around with a grin on her face.

"I love you hun." Mike replied with an outstretched hand, inviting Anna to throw the package of Mike's favorite candies.

"If any of you find some beef jerky, toss me some will yah?" Daniel said into the store. Kyle nodded and picked up some of the stuff from a rack near the front counter. His bag was now filled with some quick snacks and non perishable food items. He also made sure to include a can opener and some plastic utensils. Mike was shoving a bunch of jolly ranchers wherever he could on his kit until he had all that was left. Finally, they all grabbed an energy drink and left the store.

* * *

"Where close to another military blockade, it's just around…" Daniel reported as the party turned the next corner to a dreadful scene "…the corner. Mother Mary of Christ"

Like all the others, this one blockade was overrun, but the dead weren't finished yet. There were around 30 of them, feasting away at the once proud National Guardsmen. There were dismembered parts and entrails all over, all chewed up or have devoured. One of the zombies ripped away at a particularly stringy tendon that refused to give up its hold to the bone. It finally snapped and the ghoul brought its head back down to finish with the leg it had been gnawing on. The nostrils of its missing nose picked up the smell of living tissue. And it looked over at the team of survivors with dry eyes. It looked at them for a while and made a high pitched hissing noise that turned into a low growl. The other zombies stopped devouring the soldiers from the blockade and looked at the 4 humans with wide eyes of shock.

"Go, now." Mike said and the group turned and ran back the way they came, only to see a large group heading there way. They looked around frantically and saw a small alleyway. It was there only escape.

They traveled down a few alley ways and lost the horde behind them. All still had visions of what they just saw.

"Fuck, that's just great." Kyle said.

"We'll just have to go around." Daniel replied.

"Problem, there's a river outside the city that goes around 3 quarters of it. The blockade was trying to stop them from getting across the only bridge across the river." Kyle said, with a little anger in his voice.

"Where's the next closest one?" Anna asked.

"Don't you know? You live here." Mike said to her as he lightly punched her in the shoulder.

"Actually I don't, I'm from out of town. I came here... looking for someone" Anna said looking down at the ground. Then punched Mike back, a little harder then he did.

Kyle was the next one to speak. "The next closest bridge is in a town a few miles south of here. But, we could also take a boat from the marina. Unfortunately, it's halfway across the city."

"Beats a few miles south." Daniel said.

"I guess our decision is made then." Anna said turning and leaving down the alley the way they didn't come, away from the horde that was approaching.

* * *

As the group walked, Mike couldn't help but see that Daniel was feeling uneasy. It was the way his eyes were darting around, the white knuckle grip on his rifle, his quick breathing. Something wasn't right, besides the fact that the city is roaming with cannibalistic dead people, and only Daniel knew about it.

"Stay back for a moment, I have to talk to Danny." Mike said to Kyle and Anna. Mike jogged ahead and started a whispered conversation with Daniel. "Eh man, what's up?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." Daniel whispered back, with a slight tremble in his voice.  
"Hey, I don't need to be a psychologist to know something's bothering you. Come on, we've beenworking together for 5 years. You can trust me."

"Just a bad feeling, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Last time you had a bad feeling like this, we were in Iraq, and our convoy was ambushed." After he said 'ambushed', the loud sound of a trash can toppling over rang through the abandoned alleyways of the city slums. A single zombie looked over at the small band of the living. It started to make the same noise the nose less one did back at the blockade before being permanently silenced by a loud crack from Anna's pistol, causing a neat hole to form in the creature's forehead.  
"Shit, we have to move faster!" Dan screamed as he ran out of the alley way. His mind finally cracked from the horrors. Blinded by terror, he turned down the street at the edge of the alleyway and ran straight at a horde of ghouls. They didn't even bother walking towards him, they just stood there and stretched out their bony decaying arms for the feast to come to them.

"DAN!" Mike futilely screamed out at his friend. He was doomed, he stopped right in front of them. Dan's face pale with fear, stared at the gazing orbs of death staring at him. And the jaws that opened into a dark oblivion.

Like a toppling wave, they fell upon him. Dan's screams of agony filled the air as the creatures tore into him like a little boy opening his first present on Christmas morning. The screams were silenced when one of the creatures ripped out his trachea and esophagus from an exposed throat. Another tore out his intestines while 3 others ripped them into fragments to satiate their hunger. Dan's arm was half chewed and half ripped off and carried away from his body. A ghoul bit into his femoral artery, causing a massive spray of blood to sprout out of his leg. Daniel's body was completely torn apart within 30 seconds.

Mike looked away and turned to see one of them quietly trotting towards Anna, how looked with wide eyes in the direction of Daniel ran. To her, her once old friend's eyes seemed to turn red for a moment as an expression of rage covered his face. He ran towards the zombie behind her and tackled it to the ground. Anna turned to see him beating the zombies face in with his bare hands and screaming. Eventually, the rotting things head seemed to crack at the immense strength of the adrenaline pumping pissed off Master Corporal Michael King. The zombie twitched once and moved no more. Mike rose from the battered corpse and looked towards the other two remaining survivors. The noises of the things feasting on Dan could still be heard as the chewed on bone and tore at flesh.

"Michael…" Anna said silently, and ran off in to where she shot the zombie in the head, it was the only way of escape from this alleyway. Kyle immediately followed after her. Mike stood there for 10 seconds and took of his pack, he rummaged through until he found his claymore mines and set up one to cover their trail. Afterwards, he looked at it, then at in the direction at which Daniel ran for the last time.

"Long road ahead bro." He then followed in the direction Anna and Kyle ran towards.


	4. Chapter 4: Memories of Old

Chapter 4: Memories of Old

The three moved in silence. Mike stayed to the rear, not talking, barely making a noise at all. Anna seemed to be upset about something and she took small glances back at Mike. Every time she did this, her eyes seemed to get watery. Kyle's mind was brimming with inquisitive thoughts. He still didn't see what was wrong with Mike's actions against the zombie in the ally, but Anna did.

"I need to stop for a moment. I just need to sit down and collect myself for a moment" Anna suddenly blurted out. Afterwards, she more as fell rather then sat down on the ground in a small alcove between two buildings. She looked really shaken to Kyle, and Mike saw it too. But while Kyle went o sit next to her and try to comfort her, Mike took an unprecedented approach to the matter.

"Okay, Stay here and watch the area, Ill go and recce the area up ahead." Mike said, standing tall above the two civilians.

"Recce?" Kyle asked.

"Reconnaissance, take a look around, play I spy with my little eye." Mike replied, though his voice seemed annoyed. And with that little comment he turned to the direction they were originally traveling in and started to walk. His rifle ready in case he needed it.

"Want to tell me what's bothering you? Or about your relationship with Kyle" Kyle asked Anna, who had her arms wrapped around her knees and brought up to her face. But when she was spoken too, she raised her head to look at him.

"Mike and I first met in high school during grade 10." Anna responded, with a low voice, almost that of a whisper. "We became very good friends, and got closer as the days went by. He then asked me out. We dated for about 5 months, but we split up because I was having personal troubles that were affecting the relationship. He understood, and still stood at my side. He is so caring for his loved ones. He promised me that he would always be there for when I really needed him. We were so close during high school that we moved in together during college. After college, he decided to join the marines. He was always thinking about it, and was so excited about it. We then split ways, but maintained contact through Facebook and MSN."

"Nice history, but that doesn't tell me why you're feeling so down about him right now." Kyle said, softly so as not to provoke her. But it didn't end up like that.

"How the fuck do you know it's about him? Maybe it's the fact I heard someone get devoured alive, or from the fact that there are people eating other people. People who are supposed to be DEAD!" Anna shot back at him.

"I just thought…"

"No, you didn't think at all." Anna said angrily, just when the first drop of rain fell.

* * *

Mike walked carefully, so as to make as little noise as possible. He fixed his bayonet to his rifle, because he didn't want to attract attention from gunshots. There were few zombies around.

He wondered to himself, why did he leave Anna right now, he should be over there holding her, reassuring her. He stopped in his tracks and watched as memories flooded into his mind. Memories of high school with Anna. Memories of basic training. Memories of Iraq with Danny. Memories of only minutes ago, when he watched his one of his most trusted friends eaten in front of him. His screams of pain echoing in his head along with Anna's tears.

He dropped to his knees and let his rifle clatter to the ground. He held up his hands and pulled of his gloves. He looked at them for a long time. These were weapons, and at the same time, care givers. Tools for harming, and tools for loving. He looked at his face in the reflection of a puddle on the road caused by the falling rain. He looked at himself. And in a brief moment, he thought he saw himself with black eyes of death. He looked up at the sky, into the dark clouds that now covered the sky, the rain pattering on his face.

He brought his face down into his hands and started to release his pent up emotions in tears that seemed one with the rain.

* * *

"He's been gone for a while now." Kyle said impatiently.

"We're staying here until he gets back." Anna commanded.

"We have to take into account that he may not come back, he's been gone for a half hour now." Kyle countered, he was good at arguing, and he would win. He still didn't approve of him leaving on his own.

"Don't ever fucking say that again! I swear to fucking god!" Anna bursted out, pulling out her pistol and pressing it against Kyle's forehead. "He is coming back!" She held the firearm in place until Kyle responded.

"Okay, we wait. Just please put the gun down." Anna smiled on the inside on how weak Kyle really was on the inside. Anna lowered her weapon. Just then, Mike walked around the corner and over to the two humans.

"The way is pretty much clear, they seem to be moving in the direction we left, odd as it sounds." Mike reported.

"Cool, let's get moving then." Kyle said as he started to walk off.

"Hold up there chap, we have to stay for the night. I may be a marine, but that doesn't mean I'm tireless. And you could use some sleep too." Mike said. Everyone knew it, they were tired, and they needed to sleep. Mike kicked in the door of the building beside them and pointed at Kyle, then pointed inside. Kyle understood, but seemed reluctant to move. Mike then turned and peered at him in a way that made a chill run up Kyle's spine. Kyle then lifted his shotgun and proceeded to move inside. He searched around and found nothing while Mike entered behind him, assault rifle raised. He continued on and started to walk into the next room when a hatchet suddenly flew in front of his face and hit the wall beside him. He backed away quicker then most people thought he could.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL ALL OF YOU FUCKING ROTTING SHIT BRAINED FUCKERS!" Came a woman's voice from inside the room, and she ran out, with a slight limp in her right leg, with a big knife in her hand, she stopped and looked at the Mike and Anna with her one good eye. The dark hazel eye peering into the darkness surrounding the doorway, in which the silhouette of Mike stood. Her eye widened and she booked it into the next room. Mike ran after her yelling at her to stop when they heard the sound of shattering glass. Mike came out of the room again looking down at the ground.

"She's gone." After a long silence, he spoke up again. "We should barricade ourselves upstairs. Kyle'll pull first watch. I will take second, and Anna, you will take last."

They went upstairs and cleared the rest of the rooms for other crazies. When they barricaded the small apartment, the first thing Anna did was go to the small bedroom to sleep, Kyle took up a watching position at the window and Mike took of his gear body armor, helmet and combat shirt. He then followed Anna into the bedroom, and laid beside her on the bed. Anna rolled over and looked into his eyes, and smiled.

"I'm glad you're with me here, at the end of everything." She said as he put his arm over her shoulder and brought her close to him in a comforting embrace.

"I promised you didn't I?" Mike replied with a smile on his face. The two fell asleep together.

* * *

Kyle woke up to Anna shaking him awake and Mike putting on his gear, but leaving his body armor behind. It made sense, he wouldn't need it anymore, and he wasn't getting shot at. It would just weigh him down and make him slower. He picked up his rifle and looked at his body armor once more, at a piece of equipment he would never leave without before. Now it was just a memory of a time where what he fought for and against made sense.

"Who was she?" Mike said a louder then he expected. He was viewing the room in the light of a new day, and saw the room decorated with swords and pictures of people. He noticed the strange woman in a few of them. Piecing it all together, Mike figured it was her family. He decided to leave the room at rest and walked out the door into the daylight. He paused outside for a moment and felt the cool morning breeze on his face. He opened his eyes and found himself looking at a cloud formation that represented something vaguely familiar, but couldn't put his finger on it.

His brief moment of bliss was disturbed by a hiss like moan coming from down the street. He looked over and saw a ghoul shambling towards him, one arm outstretched. This one was wearing jeans and a high school football jacket. He seemed young too. Mike looked at him for a while, watching as he got closer and closer. His thoughts carrying off to what the teen zombie was doing before this mess started.

Anna walked out and grabbed Mikes hand with her own and pressed her face against the back of his shoulder. She then looked up at him and noticed he was staring at something beyond her.

"What'cha lookin at?" She asked. Mike then lifted his rifle and slid his hand away from Anna's, bringing it up to his rifles hand guard. Anna looked over at where he was looking and saw the undead being not 5 meters away. She jolted back in horror as Mike drove his bayonet through the things forehead, allowing the boy's body to rest the way it should.

Kyle walked out to see Mike pulling his bayonet out of the creature's skull. He looked in horror at the age of the zombie. He went back inside for a moment, leaving the Anna and Mike on the street, now alone. Anna looked at him, he was still facing away from her, but something caught her eye. For a brief second, the light seemed to make Mike look like he had an angels wings sprouting from his back. All it took was a blink of an eye and it was gone. Anna wondered if this was a good sign, just an illusion, or a bad omen.

"We should start moving now, the marina shouldn't be far now." Kyle said, walking out of the building again. Anna looked at Kyle and nodded. Mike responded only by putting his patrol sling over his shoulders and let his weapon dangle in front of him. His hands dropped to his sides and relaxed. When he did turn around, Anna could have sworn that his eyes were bluer then they normally were.


	5. Chapter 5: Wings of an Angel

Chapter 5: Wings of an Angel

Mike walked in front, rifle at the ready. He refused to let the other two walk in front, not after what happened to Danny. They walked in silence, not from any real emotional reason, but because no one had anything really to say. Silence, like Death itself followed them close behind, his great scythe poised to swing and pluck another living soul from a nightmare turned real.

"The marina isn't that far now, just a few more blocks." Kyle broke the silence.

"You said that a few blocks ago." Anna responded. Mike all of a sudden stopped and turned to face the two, his piercing gaze making them completely shut their mouths. He looked at Anna, then Kyle, then Anna again. Finally, he faced forward, and continued to walk. It was obvious he didn't want any talking. And so they gave him the respect of not making a sound.

Anna could see something was going on with Mike, this wasn't his usual self, she would expect him to remain calm, cool and calculating through hell like this. But he was different. He seemed to be turning bitter towards things, not talking much. He almost didn't even care about Kyle. His stance seemed more relaxed then normal, as if he didn't care. But his eyes told otherwise. His normally beautiful, innocent blue eyes were cold as ice. Watching this new world not with horror, but more of an adventure. He was changing, and it might not be for the better.

* * *

"There it is." Kyle said aloud to the party as he pointed out the marina entrance. The 3 living souls approached the marina making was little noise. But Kyle held up his fist, like when a biker is signaling a right turn.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked. Kyle just peeked around the corner a little and shot back into his original position. He faced the other two and held up five fingers, then moved his middle and index fingers in a walking motion before pointing with his hand vertically inside the marina.

"What?" was all Kyle could say.

"5 fucking zombies in the marina dumb ass." Mike said, quite annoyed at Kyle. Kyle just looked back with narrowed eyes, as in he didn't take kindly to the remark, but was powerless to do anything about it. He quickly moved in a killed the first one with his knife by stabbing it through the ear into the brain. He was upon the second when the third one noticed him and lunged at him. Mike was too fast, killing the second one and flipping the third over his back and driving his knife into a weak spot in the creature's skull. He then spun around and grabbed the next ghoul's jaw, and snapped it in one direction, breaking the neck and ending the undead's existence. The last he kicked in the gut, spun around with a roundhouse kick that landed on the side of the zombies head, causing it to lose balance and fall, he then shoved his knife into the back of the creature's head, where the spine meets the skull, bringing a merciful rest to a tortured soul.

All of this occurred in under 30 seconds.

Anna and Kyle just stared at Mike's killing prowess. He truly was a master at his art. For a while he just stood there, the wind blowing around him. He crouched down and cleaned his blade on a clean part of the zombie's clothes, then sheathed his blade. Standing tall he looked out to the docks, and saw a few boats still there and made his way towards them, signaling the other with a more universal hand gesture of "follow".

* * *

At the boat, Kyle started untying the ropes while Anna looked for keys to the boat. Mike stood watch with his M4 at the ready. He just watched the marina entrance, unflinching, even with the cool wind off the river kissing the skin on his face.

"The keys aren't here." Anna said, slightly panicky.

"They're probably inside the building. Kyle, go with Anna to find those keys. I'll continue to stand watch." Mike said. He said it with a commanding authority, all though the tone really didn't seem like it. Kyle made no protest and went with Anna inside the building. Mike watched them go inside, he heard two shotgun blasts while they where in there.

Then the smell hit him. A flashback from Iraq came to him, when he came upon a burning body after a suicide bomber blew up in a market. He looked ahead and fired off a round, catching the ghoul in the forehead, dropping him on the spot. Anna and Kyle must have heard the shot cause they ran out of the building. Mike noticed something glinting in Anna's hand, he figured it was the keys.

"Get to the boat! I'll hold them off!" Mike yelled as he took up a firing position behind a car. Anna and Kyle ran to the boat. They reached it when Mike turned and started running after them, only to notice that somehow, zombies have broken through a chain link fence and blocked his escape. He looked at Anna, who had her hands over her mouth and was crying. Kyle was holding onto the ropes, on the dock, waiting for Mike.

"Go, leave me! I'll find another way!" Mike screamed as he fired into the hordes of zombies pouring into the marina. Kyle wasn't moving. Mike yelled out at them again. "Go god damn it!"

With this, Kyle finally threw the ropes into the boat and pushed off. Anna continued to cry as Kyle drove off. Mike watched them go for a few seconds before turning his attention to the things surrounding him. Before he died, he would kill as many of them as he could, he could die peacefully now, knowing that he saved her.

"Get some mother fuckers." Kyle called to the overwhelming hordes.

* * *

Tears streamed down Anna's face, as her small form jerked from crying as she watched her old friend disappear into a mass of rotting flesh. Kyle looked ahead, across the river to the buildings on the other side. He dared one look back at where Mike had stood where weaker men have broken. He was a good soldier, and a good friend.

* * *

Kyle dropped the anchor in the middle of the water. He was tired, and Anna was already asleep, with the tears drying on her face. He thought it would be the safest place to sleep. He thought to himself now, he was no leader, and Anna was now emotionally distraught, what would become of them now. He started to feel hopeless, like an ant staring at a kid with a magnifying glass. Like all he could do was run from the inevitable.

It took Kyle an hour to fall asleep. Anna woke up to a full moon, she looked at it and remembered something that her and Mike shared when they were still in high school. That if they looked at the moon, the other was looking at that same one. It helped them feel closer when they were apart. She started long and hard, and she thought she saw his face staring back at her. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she smiled. She felt hope, that Mike had somehow survived, and they would meet again.

* * *

She imagined that one time when they left the building that once belonged to that crazy woman. When she thought she saw Mike, with the wings of an angel. He truly was her guardian angel through this. But he wouldn't be close enough to protect her, she had to do it herself, until they met again.

She walked through the alleyways that she scoured as a child. Carrying her authentic short sword at the ready, she scanned the area around her with her one good eye, the other scarred shut from an accident in her past, but not the same that twisted her right leg, which was shorter then the left. In spite of this, she still moved easily.

She swung around a corner and saw a zombie. Instead of charging and stabbing the damned thing, she pulled out a knife from her boot and threw it, impaling the ghoul right in the eye, causing it to drop down, and not get back up. She looked at it, no one she knew. She didn't think she would ever see another familiar face, she was pretty sure she killed them all, and mutilated their faces so she would never have to look at them again and bring back old memories.

She walked over and recovered her knife before walking out into the street. She would pass through the park and go through the hole in the chain link fence that's been there for years. As she walked through the park, her right leg seemed to tingle, as if it remembered that accident so many years ago, the one that twisted her leg. As she continued to walk, the sound of the living dead became louder and louder. And that's when she saw the horde lingering through the front of the marina and around the hole in the fence. There were so many of them, she would probably have to wait a few hours, or days. Whatever it took, she had to get to her boot and escape. She looked over to where it had been docked, and was overcome but frustration, fear, and surprise. It was gone. Someone else had come and taken her families boat.

She turned around to go back to her home when she heard shots ring out. They must have been from that soldier she encountered yesterday. She had some questions for him, and maybe her blade did too. Like where her boat went, and why he raided her home.


End file.
